AlertNet, the humanitarian news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, this week scored an exclusive with a trip to witness the hunger crisis in the secretive state of North Korea.
North Korea's Economy and Trade Information Center, part of the foreign trade ministry, invited Tim Large, Thomson Reuters Foundation's Editor, to see the extent of the crisis on a rare reporting trip to its rice bowl in South Hwanghae province in the southwest.
Tim saw evidence of alarming malnutrition and damaged crops, but also signs of some promise for the coming rice harvest.
As part of the tightly-controlled trip, Tim, a Reuters photographer and video journalist visited collective farms, orphanages, hospitals, rural clinics, schools and nurseries.
The regime's motive in granting the access appears to be to amplify its food aid appeals. North Korean officials at first asked AlertNet to reach out to its subscriber base to mobilize help--and at one point asked the Thomson Reuters Foundation for a donation. AlertNet declined, saying all it could do was visit and report on the situation.
The picture the regime presented in South Hwanghae was largely one of chronic hunger, dire healthcare, limited access to clean water and a collapsing food-rationing system, all under a command economy that has been in crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago threw North Korea into isolation.
See our multimedia coverage here
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